Websites have potential to be steady, reliable streams of income. However, to be successful business ventures, websites must be well-designed. As a business, part of this design includes maximizing a site for revenue. Here are several ways website owners can increase their sales revenues through multiple sales streams.
Referral Sales
Referral income is earned by referring potential customers to a site. These are commonly called affiliate or associate programs. Common programs are Bottom Dollar,
Spree.com and Amazon.
As a user clicks through or acts on an offer, a flat rate or percentage is paid by the referred site to the referring site. Typical rates vary from $0.05 to $1.00 per click-through or from 5 percent to 20 percent of sales.
The largest danger of referral income is the temptation to refer users to any site that pays for referrals. This can quickly cause a site to lose its original focus. Once this is lost, users will stop visiting the site, because it no longer is unique.
The key to successfully earning referral income is to focus the website on a niche market and to promote only sites related to that market. The site’s purpose should be clearly defined in a written mission statement. Then, only sites and products directly related to that statement should be promoted.
Although fewer sites are being referred, more money can actually be made this way. People are more likely to click on the referrals, because they are interested in the products or services. Users also will continue to visit the site if it maintains a focused purpose.
Advertising Sales
As a site grows and its hits increase, advertising becomes an increasingly lucrative means of revenue. Like any other media, advertisers benefit more by having more people see their ads. The value of advertising varies greatly with the popularity of a site. The range is typically from $5.00 to $75.00 per thousand page view, or impressions. These rates are for banner ads on a site.
Product Sales
Ideally, the backbone on a website’s profit would come from product sales. The profit margin will depend upon the mark-up and shipping costs of a product, so the overall profit from these sales will vary. For a greater profit margin, website owners can ship products themselves. Using a drop-shipper will decrease the profit margin, but free up time. Either way, all websites should offer some products for sale, because they can be a vital stream of revenue.
Follow-Up Sales
Many traditional businesses have branched into the e-commerce world, in order to promote their products or services to more people. A website can generate many leads. Usually people are willing to enter their email address, although sometimes a phone number or physical address will be given. This contact information can be used for traditional follow-up and a potential sale.
Subscription Sales
Popular sites that offer unique information often have a paid, subscription section. Users are willing to pay a site for information that is better than any other offered. Many newspapers have paid sections. They are also willing to pay for unique views. Many commentators have a paid portion of their site. This is the more common method of increasing sales through subscriptions.
The internet is a powerful tool, and people who understand how to use websites effectively can make a reliable income. There are many tools that should be used. By understanding how a site can benefit from each of these, website owners can maximize their sales.
November 23, 2011 at 3:53 am | Starter Guide | Tagged with: Advertising Sales, Follow-Up Sales, Product Sales, Referral Sales | No comment
It’s hard when you are setting up your website to know where to focus your efforts. In writing this little ebook I wanted to help small business owners understand the main things that make up a great website. They are mostly simple things and most of them are things that the small business owner themselves can influence or implement entirely themselves.
The book is also supported by our ‘website review checklist’ which allows the business operator to easily measure their site against the 8 features covered in the ebook.
I hope you enjoy the ebooks and if you do then please feel free to share them.
August 18, 2011 at 7:37 am | Website Design | Tagged with: ebook, free download, small biz, small business, small business websites, Website Design | No comment
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One of the great things about the modern web is small business owners can do more and more themselves. While a lot of business owners are in the habit of updating their sites themselves, when it comes to setting up the site originally it’s still fairly rare to go it alone. What is more rare is small business owners building their own sites that are actually good!
However it’s certainly possible and while there is an oversupply of free ‘website builders’ which only really help business owners build sites that do more harm than good, there are also some great tools available.
While the tools exist however, it seems there isn’t a lot of really straight forward instructions on how to go about it.This is the reason I wrote ‘How to build yourself a free world class website‘. It is designed to help small business owners who want to go it alone, not only build a site but build a world class one.
The ebook is supported by a number of WordPress training videos to provide you with a step by step run-down of exactly what you need to do. |
| Download now |
August 18, 2011 at 7:32 am | CMS, Website Design | Tagged with: build your own site, diy, website builder, wordpress | No comment
Download now |
I wrote the Website Starter Guideto help small business owners who are just getting started and don’t really know where to start.the intention of the ebook is to provide small business owners with what I believe they need to succeed online and that is:
- A basic understanding of the fundamental aspects of getting up and running online
- Some help in choosing the right company for them to partner with.
Click on the left to download (no registration required) and please feel free to share this ebook if you find it useful.
I would also love you to comment below with any feedback or discussion points on the ebook. |
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August 18, 2011 at 6:52 am | Starter Guide | Tagged with: free download, free ebook, getting started, small business, Website Design, website starter guide | No comment
